Coldwell Banker Real Estate Names Clyde Hill, Washington One of Top 10 Best Places to Live for Suburbanites

PARSIPPANY, NJ--(Marketwire - Sep 25, 2012) - According to a new ranking by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, Clyde Hill, Wash. is the place to be for people who love the suburbs. This Seattle suburb took the No. 2 spot in the "Top 10 Best Places to Live for Suburbanites" out of more than 11,000 communities across the United States, thanks to a high percentage of single family homes, options for nearby public and private schools and its close proximity to downtown.

Part of a series of five lists produced by Coldwell Banker and Onboard Informatics, a data company which provides real estate data information, the "Best Places to Live for Suburbanites" ranking was based on a range of attributes including access to suburban amenities (such as grocery stores and banks), proximity to good schools, commuting by car and community safety.

In the national ranking, Clyde Hill was only preceded by Cherry Hills Village, Colo., which was ranked the No. 1 suburb in the United States. The following communities topped the list as the "Best Places to Live for Suburbanites" in Washington:

Best Places for Suburbanites in Washington

Rank

City/Town

Score

(Out of 1,000 Points)

1

Clyde Hill

972.57

2

Medina

941.41

3

Cottage Lake

925.31

4

Yarrow Point

919.40

5

Woodway

904.46

6

Sammamish

899.74

7

Mercer Island

895.42

8

Brier

891.25

9

Union Hill-Novelty Hill

891.17

10

Normandy Park

889.67

Trends from Washington Suburbs

According to data from Onboard Informatics, Coldwell Banker Real Estate identified the following trends among the Washington suburban communities included in the ranking:

Washington Suburbs Rank High in Safety: Crime is 38 percent less likely in the top 10 Washington suburbs than the national average.

Washington Suburbanites Eat In More: Washington residents who live in suburbs spend approximately four times more money to make home cooked meals than they do going out to eat.

More Washington Suburbanites are Homeowners: Approximately 89 percent of people in Washington suburbs own their homes, compared to 67 percent of people nationally.

Errands Are Easier: The top 10 ranked Washington suburbs have approximately five times as many conveniences and amenities as the national average, such as gas stations, grocery stores and banks, making everyday tasks just a little bit easier.

Weekends Dedicated to DIY: Residents in the top 10 ranked Washington suburbs are twice as likely as the national average to engage in home improvement and decoration projects.

Washington Suburbanites are One with Nature: A suburb's landscape certainly has its perks. Residents living in top 10 Washington suburbs are five times more likely to be interested in outdoor activities compared to the national average

"Suburban communities in Washington continue to appeal to people of all ages thanks to the many options for nearby public and private schools and close proximity to suburban amenities," said Suzanne Mueller, chief marketing officer, Coldwell Banker Bain. "Residents in the suburbs have the best of both worlds - they can enjoy gorgeous views and tree-lined streets and still have the ability to commute to downtown Seattle in minutes. Washington suburbs are the perfect place for those who crave the best of suburban living."

This is the second list released in the Coldwell Banker "Best Places to Live" five-part series in partnership with Onboard Informatics, ranking the top places based on lifestyle. In July 2012 Coldwell Banker identified the "Best Places for Social Seekers," and will be releasing rankings for Adventurers, Leisure Lovers and Culture Cravers in the coming months. In addition to this series, Coldwell Banker also offers a Lifestyle Search feature on ColdwellBanker.com, which allows people to find homes by rating the importance of lifestyle characteristics.

*Data regarding safety, commuting and the behavior of suburbanites was provided by Onboard Informatics and based on the analysis of 11,029 communities defined as suburbs. National data was also provided by Onboard Informatics. Trends were identified by comparing the average of all suburbs and the average of the top 10 to the national average values for selected attributes.

**Onboard Informatics system uses Ranks to determine the National Top 10 list, Top 100 Places list and Top 50 places per state lists. Each attribute for each place is assigned a value (number). In concept, scores and ranks are created by adding up the values for all attributes for a place that are relevant to the category and then ranking / sorting them. In practice, in order to assure that each attribute contributes to the rolled up category scores and ranks correctly, additional calculations are performed as follows:

Scores: Base scores are derived from the raw attribute data by normalizing to a 0 - 1,000 point scale. This is required as the raw data does not display [WU1] uniformity of scale (one attribute may have values between 0 and 100, another between 57 and 34,212, etc.). Once normalized, each attribute score is multiplied by a weighting factor between 1 and 5. Weighting factors were assigned by Onboard and approved by Coldwell Banker based on relevance and importance of the attribute to the category. This results in a potential score between 0 and 5,000 for a given attribute.

All attribute scores for a category are then summed to create a category score for each place. These raw category scores are then normalized again to a 0 - 1,000 scale for display.

Ranks: Ranking is simply the ordering of places by their category score. Sort is in descending order such that the place with the largest category score receives a rank = 1. Unlike scores, ranks are calculated by top city/ towns (1-100) and within each state (1-50).

About Coldwell Banker®
Since 1906, the Coldwell Banker® organization has been a premier provider of full-service residential and commercial real estate. Coldwell Banker is the oldest national real estate brand in the United States and today has a network of approximately 83,000 sales agents working in approximately 3,100 offices in 50 countries and territories. The Coldwell Banker brand is known for creating innovative consumer services as recently seen by being the first national real estate brand to create an iPad application and the first to fully harness the power of video in real estate listings, news and information through its Coldwell Banker On Location(SM) YouTube channel. The Coldwell Banker system is a leader in specialty markets such as resort, new homes and luxury properties through its Coldwell Banker Previews International® marketing program. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each office is independently owned and operated.